Mr. Jerry Beades:

One does not have to go to the High Court. The big problem with the High Court is that the fees are off the wall. The legislation for the Circuit Court examinership is through and, as far as I know, they are up and running. The examinerships we have seen have been pre-packaged examinerships in which some of the English chains have wanted to get out of leases in shopping centres. Under legislation, companies that go through examinership can dump their landlords. There have been a number of large examinerships with some of the large retail chains going through the process. If it were available to the ordinary householders to dump their mortgages, as has been allowed for the examinerships, it would be great. I have been in the High Court when one of these was going on. I listened to a High Court judge ranting on and writing down leases of €250,000 per year to €50,000, and authorising them. Two hours beforehand, the same judge was evicting companies and giving judgments. It is two different worlds.

One can consider what is going on in Clerys and all the issues surrounding it. Again, it is a world on its own outside the comprehension of the ordinary individual. I had my first receivers appointed in 2010 by ACC Bank and I understand exactly what Ms Lavin is saying. I was naïve and I am wiser now. It turns out the receiver of my property was wrongly appointed in the first place and he sold a property worth €11 million for €400,000. I am now thinking of taking proceedings against him because I have discovered it was fraud. One is wiser after the event than one would be the day those people walk into the office.